• "Even death has a heart"
• -Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
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• Students will be conducting interviews of a person/group of people in their neighborhood who is of a different race/religion than themselves and create an anthology of authentic interviews about death throughout different cultures. Through the interview process, students will be able to both go through the interview process to learn more about a diverse group of people, as well as go through the editing process necessary to turn a raw interview into a polished and readable published work.
• Students will then be comparing the dominant discourse of how Americans traditionally view death as compared to the culture they interviewed and writing an essay on their findings.

Other Evidence:

• Students will be blogging about their reactions to the articles, texts, and videos they are watching related to the material.
• The assignments that the students hand in, such as their culminating projects, will show their understanding of the material and what was assigned to them.
• What is expected in this unit is for students to gain a new perspective on the societal norms compared to those of a different culture.

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• Stage Three: Learning Plan
  • What is expected in this unit is for students to gain a new perspective on the societal norms that we have grown up with. The process of death is normally seen as a sad and morbid thing in this culture, however it is viewed in starkly different lights in other cultures and religions
  • Through the interview process, students will gain better people skills as they deal with a sensitive subject and present it in a profound way.

  • Students will be revising their work both separately and in peer groups in order to gain feedback from students who are completing the same assignment.

• The Book Thief - Markus Zusak: This text will serve as the fulcrum text of the unit. This novel personifies Death as a narrator rather than an event and his commentary on life and how people live is a very touching and new perspective throughout the novel.
• "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" - Emily Dickinson: The overall theme of the poem seems to be that death is not to be feared since it is a natural part of the endless cycle of nature. Her view of death may also reflect her personality and religious beliefs. On the one hand, as a spinster, she was somewhat reclusive and introspective, tending to dwell on loneliness and death. On the other hand, as a Christian and a Bible reader, she was optimistic about her ultimate fate and appeared to see death as a friend.
• "How Death is Handled in Various Cultures" - Charlotte Kuchinsky: This article gives a brief overview on how different cultures view death, including Jewish, Buddhist, Native Americans, and Irish.
• "Understanding Cultural Issues" - This article goes over several different cultures and how they view death, along with the traditions, practices, etc.
• "Terri Schiavo - A Tragedy Compounded"- This article from the New England Journal of Medicine gives an overview and facts about the controversial Terri Schiavo case that brought life support into the forefront of medical discussion.
• Global Abortion Laws -This list of what is considered legal and illegal when it comes to abortion is interesting compared to the United States/religious views of abortions.
• Chinese Burial Customs - This article goes into detail about the Chinese burial and and beyond process.
• The Fault In Our Stars- John Green: This text explores death of a different kind in the form of cancer in teenagers rather than suicide or car accidents. The teens in the text experience death more frequently and explore the classic science versus religion aspect of death.
• "Do not stand at my grave and weep" - Mary Elizabeth Frye: The poem addresses the reader/audience with the voice of a deceased person, invoking spiritual — but not specifically religious — imagery. The text soothes the addressee, reassuring of the deceased's presence everywhere in nature in both its message and its voice, and as such has become a very popular poem and a common reading for funerals.
• "The Wasteland"- T.S Elliot: This highly popular poem goes through several stages of a post-WWI world that is nothing but destruction. This website helps break down the text by a side-by-side analysis which shows all of the references that Elliot uses in his poem.
• The Divine Comedy - Dante Alighieri: This epic journey takes Dante through the seven circles of Hell, in three different rings: the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. As you descend deeper into the circles, your crimes are worse. However, the journey is also interpreted as getting closer to God.